How Hybrid Cannabis Came to be in the US

Allegedly, in the 80’s US soldiers were deployed to Afghanistan for the Soviet-Afghan conflict. As soldiers were arriving in Afghanistan, they noticed cannabis growing on mountain sides, looking like bushes rather than trees, at roughly 2-3 feet tall. These soldiers started smuggling plant seeds back to the US to grow themselves. Seeds were shared with friends and family that also cultivated cannabis. This new plant species was not only much shorter than existing cannabis, it only took 2 months to flower, rather than 4 months. What followed was the cross breeding of the two species.

This created the new craze: Hybrid Cannabis.

Cannabis Sativa is a tropical plant that originated close to the equator. Sativa plants are a taller species that can stand up to 12ft tall in nature and has airy buds with thin leaves. The leaves and bud structure alleviate heat so the plant can withstand great temperatures, and survive the humidity. Effects are often cerebral, uplifting and sometimes, giggly. Often, they carry a tropical or fruity aroma.

Then we have the Indica plant which is a stocky and thick bush that hails from the windy mountain side. Indica bud structure is also thick and compact and contains a piney to musky smell with cannabis buds the size of golf balls. Harvest time on an Indica plant is anywhere from 6 weeks to 8 weeks versus the Sativa plant’s 3 to 4 months. This intrigued growers – what if they could get the giggly high from a high yielding more compact plant that didn’t take so long per harvest? So they started crossing different marijuana strains together trying to create the best of their favorite species. This was the beginning of the genetics to different strains we know today.

So somewhere up the family tree of the weed you partake in currently, holds the reasons why it has the high and look that it does now – all from trying to get the timing of the harvest down without compromising the integrity of the bud, to

Hope you enjoyed this tidbit of history – continue to check out theevergreenmarket.com blog for new and innovative articles for your viewing pleasure. =)